Senators Support Additional Funding for Lupus Research

Capitol Hill Update - August 2008

August 1, 2008

Long time champion of health research, Labor-Health, Human Services and Education (L-HHS-Ed) Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Tom Harkin (D-IA), has included $500 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in his Chairman's mark for a second FY 2008 supplemental spending package. Senate Appropriations Chair Robert Byrd (D-WV) plans to mark up the stimulus supplemental package when the Senate returns in September from Summer Recess.

Congress passed a similar spending package--the war supplemental--that included a $150 million increase for the NIH. This bill (H.R. 2642) was signed by the President last month. Emergency appropriations from these supplemental spending bills will be distributed directly to the NIH's 27 agencies, providing grant funding for medical research in FY 2008.

In a previous legislative move emphasizing the need for medical research, Senate L-HHS-Ed Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Chairman Harkin also introduced legislation (S. 3272) to provide an additional $5.2 billion for NIH funding for FY 2008. The bill, introduced on July 16, 2008, would allocate $4 million to be distributed amongst NIH's institutes and centers, with $1.2 million designated for the National Cancer Institute.

At a hearing on the FY 2009 budget request for NIH, Senator Specter stated that "funding for NIH is grossly insufficient, and Congress must do something about this scandalous situation." At the same hearing, NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni testified before the committee, saying medical research requires long term-investment and that current funding levels of NIH could have serious consequences on its ability to perform research. Dr. Zerhouni recommends that NIH fund 3000 scientists per year to keep pace with new medical research discoveries, and said that at current funding levels NIH cannot maintain that.

Other cosponsors of the bill include: Sens. Norm Coleman (R-MN), Susan Collins (R-ME), Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX), Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Gordon Smith (D-OR).